Babinda in pictures: Now and then

By Isaac Egan

Ever wondered about the history of your town, but never been able to find anything online? Well a resident of the small far north Queensland town of Babinda has taken his town's history into his own hands, creating an online image archive in the form of a Facebook page.

(Pictured: Babinda's National Bank of Australia in 1932 and today.) Babinda newsagent Rodney Edwards found himself collecting historical pictures of his town and decided they needed to be shared. "I have collected a few photos from here there and everywhere from around town. They are too great not to share so I thought a good way to share them is on Facebook," said Mr Edwards. (Courtesy: Rodney Edwards)

(Pictured: The Babinda library in the 1950s and today.) "Each time I pick out a photo I try to get up to town and find where the spot was and take a similar photo of what it looks like now. Some of them date back to basically when the town was born. It is just so terrific to be able to look back on them in time and see what the town looked like," said Mr Edwards. (Courtesy: Rodney Edwards)

(Pictured: The grandstand at the Babinda sports ground in the 1940s and today.) "We need to share these sort of things, in the old days it was a bit hard, it was a matter of passing around photos I suppose, but now they just get locked away. But this sort of thing can be shared with everyone and Facebook is a really good format to be able to do that," said Mr Edwards. (Courtesy: Rodney Edwards)

(Pictured: Beatties Picture Hall in the 1930s and the present theatre on the same site.) Mr Edwards says the cinema has had many forms over the years, being torn apart by cyclones, burnt to the ground by fires and rebuilt numerous times. "The pictured building is long gone and Cyclone Larry knocked about the present one too," said Mr Edwards. (Courtesy: Rodney Edwards)

(Pictured: The Babinda State Hotel in 1952 and today.) "Some buildings have hardly changed, for instance the State Hotel is very much the same as what it was way back in 1916. Then you've got buildings like the Babinda Creek Hotel which is still there, but instead of being two storeys it is only one storey," said Mr Edwards. (Courtesy: Rodney Edwards)

(Pictured: The Babinda post office in 1929 and today.) "It seems like it was about 1900 that the little town kicked off, and cane is the reason why. There is a lot of history there, but we need to get it written down while there are those of us that still remember it: So that it is kept forever," said Mr Edwards. (Courtesy: Rodney Edwards)